The Syrian army said on Saturday that dozens of its soldiers had been killed in a rebel offensive in northwestern Syria and that rebels had managed to enter large parts of the city of Aleppo, forcing the army to redeploy.
The Syrian army’s statement marks its first public acknowledgement that rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham entered the government-held city of Aleppo in a surprise attack that began this week.
“The large number of terrorists and the multitude of battlegrounds prompted our armed forces to carry out a redeployment operation to strengthen defense lines to repel the attack, save the lives of civilians and soldiers, and prepare for a counterattack,” the army said.
The rebel offensive poses the biggest challenge in years for President Bashar al-Assad, shaking the front lines of the Syrian civil war that has been largely frozen since 2020.
A statement from the Syrian army said the rebels had failed to establish a fixed position in Aleppo due to continued military bombardment of their positions.
Two Syrian military sources said earlier that Russian and Syrian warplanes had attacked rebels in the outskirts of Aleppo on Saturday. Russia deployed its air force to Syria in 2015 to help Assad in the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011.
Rebel forces launched their surprise offensive this week, pushing through government-held towns and reaching Aleppo nearly a decade after government forces backed by Russia and Iran drove the rebels from the city.
Speaking on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow considered the rebel attack a violation of Syria’s sovereignty.
“We are in favor of the Syrian authorities bringing order to the area and establishing constitutional order as soon as possible,” he said, according to Reuters.
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